Accurate and reliable delivery of water has and continues to be a critical function for producing food for a growing population and for improving air quality (as in dust suppression). In addition, since the supply of water and electricity are limited, efficient methods of ensuring their delivery to the right place and at the right time continue to attract the attention of both designers as well as users.
Irrigation timers and controllers have been available for decades, and are an indispensable component in any state-of-the-art irrigation system. Many of these timers and controllers orchestrate the flow of water through these systems reliably and efficiently. However, many existing irrigation controllers utilize inflexible program architectures and are crafted for specific applications that are cumbersome when used in alternate applications.
The advent of wireless irrigation networks has opened the door for implementing irrigation control systems over a wider area and controlling a larger number of valves than their wired counterparts. The increase in the number of valves that a system can control also expands the complexity of the irrigation networks and complicates programming and sequencing of the irrigation valves and ancillary devices such as pumps within those networks beyond the capability of many state-of-the art controllers. Some controllers do indeed have the capacity to control large numbers of valves, but lack the structure to also control much simpler and limited systems.
What is needed then is an agile irrigation controller that addresses the above-mentioned problems by providing a flexible programming structure that can serve both simple and complex installations. This controller is the subject of the present patent application.